All the Elements for Disaster: Color the Stars
by Radicool223
Summary: As trouble brews in space and tensions are on the rise between Cobalt Spikes and Rainbow Dash, can they even work together to save the world?
1. Prologue

**So last chapter, I'll bet you all were wondering: what happened to Twilight?**

**Well I have answers!**

**However, I won't reveal them to you right now. So on with the story!**

Cobalt was sure that the invitation he got in the mail was a trap as soon as he got it. If the huge Eggman logo that covered it didn't give it away, then perhaps the text of the letter did. It read:

_My dear friend Cobalt Spikes,_

_It is my great pleasure to announce that I no longer enjoy my evil ways, and have turned good. In this invitation, I cordially invite you to the amusement park I have built when it opens, free of charge. Opening is in one week, and entrance is in the space elevator near what you call the 'Everfree Forest.'_

_Ciao, Doctor Eggman_

If that didn't ring a funny bell, then nothing did. Eggman would never stop being evil, and even he couldn't build an amusement park in one day. He'd just sent Metal Sonic to eliminate Cobalt yesterday, and if the dark blue pegasus was reasoning right, that didn't add up. Evil one day and not the next wasn't possible if a not evil project was going on while Eggman was evil. Therefore the park was evil, and therefore some sort of trap.

On top of that, Twilight had disappeared the day before. She had never missed getting back to the library before about two in the morning, so when she was still gone in the morning with no trace of having visited the previous night, Cobalt knew something was up. And that tied in with the fact that he'd received the amusement park invitation right after she'd disappeared, it meant trouble.

So he made his way to the Everfree Forest and found the elevator, and another, quite unexpected presence.

"What are you doing here?" Rainbow Dash growled, narrowing her eyes.

"Investigating this." Cobalt said with a scowl in response to her unprovoked hostility, holding up the letter he'd gotten. "What about you?"

"Same as you." Rainbow flashed an identical letter. "I don't believe this crap for a second."

"Neither do I." Cobalt replied, feeling a stab of pain in his heart at her irritated expression. It hurt him more than he could convey to see her angry with him. He… sweet Celestia, he _loved_ her. And to have her turn on him with such fury, it gave him more pain inside than that creature that lived in his head could ever cause him.

"We should work together." He said slowly. "There's strength in numbers."

"Tactical." She muttered, nodding in grudging agreement. "Fine. Let's go with that."

Cobalt glanced up at the park above. "Let's get going. I don't like the look of this thing if it gets any farther along."

Rainbow trotted up to the elevator door and pushed the button, causing it to slide open. "Come on, I don't want to do this any longer than I have to." She grumbled.

"Ladies first." Cobalt said with a small smile.

She sighed and closed her eyes, shaking her head. "Don't try to make me laugh, Cobalt. Please, just don't. It hurts." She glanced up again with fresh fire in her eyes. "Now are you getting in or am I going solo?"

Cobalt didn't respond, but quietly walked into the polished steel cylindrical shaft that was the elevator and stood next to his friend.

What could she have meant? It hurt her when he tried to make her laugh. That meaning had been clear, but why would she say that now. It had never bothered her before when he'd gotten her to crack up over some dumb joke. But then again, that had been before their falling out.

Soft elevator music played a soothing song as the capsule ascended at a subsonic rate up into space, but it didn't do much to calm the tension between the two pegasi, who were standing at a very close and very uncomfortable distance away from each other.

Cobalt looked over at Rainbow and noticed something odd about her demeanor. Instead of being calm and collected, as he'd thought she'd be, she was instead nervously glancing over at him every few seconds… and did he see a pink tinge spreading on her face?

No, he had to be imagining it.

But even so, he still felt his wings involuntarily stiffening at the thought of what he'd seen, and breathed a sigh of relief that she didn't notice… or at least didn't mention it. However, the next time he looked over at her, her blush (it was definitely so at this point) had grown even bigger.

A couple of seconds later, just when the two felt that if the air didn't move, the elevator would blow up, the doors slid open again, and they walked together out into the theme park in space.

**And that's where I leave it for now. Gosh dang cliffhangers. I can't resist.**

**Ciao! Radicool223 out!**


	2. Arguing

**I don't know how to begin this, so here we go.**

**graysean86: Um, jumping the gun a bit on your predictions there.**

**Zero the fox: Oh come on, they're cool.**

**SubZPhantomX: Slow down there. Only Cobalt's actually said a thing.**

**The Marvelous Mathmagician: It's mathmagical! Sorry, just wanted to say that. Dang, you have a lot of questions, and most of them will be answered this chapter. Also, Cadance? No… Also, what do you mean by 'one specifically' in your thing with the wisps?**

**FanFictionsSins FFS: Oh puns, you never let us down.**

**TheSonicGamer99: Neither can I.**

**Zacharythehedgehog: That's a very good observation. I must agree.**

**Abigail the Hedgehog: Thanks!**

**Inkwell Lynx: I intend to make it such an installment.**

**decode9: Frenzy, eh? I hadn't even considered that yet. Ooh, that's gonna be fun.**

**BLTSweg: It is the impossible.**

"This place is epic." Cobalt said with a huge grin, looking around at the expanse of tropical colors and plants spread out before them. "Say what you want about the doc, he knows what he's doing with exterior decoration."

Rainbow mumbled something unintelligible under her breath, which effectively silenced her friend by making him wonder what exactly she'd said.

They proceeded farther into the strange space resort in silence, looking around at what was there quietly.

A few seconds later, Cobalt cleared his throat. "Uh, earlier you said that it… hurt… when I tried to make you laugh." He swallowed, his throat suddenly feeling very dry. "What exactly did you mean?"

Rainbow shook her head, not looking at him. "It doesn't matter. What matters is that we figure out what's going on here." She glanced up from the ground at her hooves, which was where she'd been resolutely staring for quite a while. "And I think we have our first clue."

Cobalt was confused for a moment about what she might've meant, but then he heard, "Git along little alien varmit!" from over the edge of the ridge he was standing on. He peered over it and frowned at what he saw.

There was mostly mass chaos, but he was able to discern individual forms in it that looked almost like parasprites that had undergone some sort of genetic experiment. As he looked closer, he noticed that all these parasprite-looking things could be categorized into distinctly different colors.

Among the mob, he also saw two robots that almost looked like three-dimensional shapes, one being almost a sphere and the other almost a cube. The round one was red and the square one was yellow. Both wielded a net and a ray gun that seemed to be firing green energy beams. The yellow one was the one that had spoken with an accent resembling Applejack's, and seemed more trigger-happy with his gun than his red companion. Larger orange robots that bore a striking resemblance to Eggman himself surrounded them like a bodyguard.

As Cobalt watched, one of the rays the yellow robot shot hit an alien, as the robot had referred to it, and said alien dissolved into a puff of smoke that quickly dissipated into nothingness, leaving no trace that the alien had ever existed in the first place.

Cobalt's expression tightened into an animal snarl, he bared his teeth, and his vision went red. He was utterly furious that the robot had gone so far as to actually kill one of these defenseless aliens, when its mission was obviously only to catch them unharmed.

He didn't remember much afterward, but from what Rainbow Dash told him, he'd gone berserk on the bodyguard robots, smashing them to pieces, ripping wires with his teeth, tearing off their heads… All he knew was that the geometrical robots had fled, and he was standing in the middle of a pile of scrap metal and sparking wires and bleeding from a cut above his eye, breathing heavily.

He must've looked frightening, because all the aliens immediately fled, except for one, who backed away fearfully when Cobalt took a few steps toward it.

"Wait," Cobalt called. "I'm not here to hurt you. I want to help."

A shell-shocked looking Rainbow Dash joined him. "H-he means it." She agreed, nodding. "I think…" she added quietly, glancing nervously at Cobalt, who wondered just how terrifying he'd been.

When the alien still looked uncertain (or, as uncertain as a creature with one eye and small tentacles can look, anyway), Cobalt went on. "Look, I only did… whatever I just did because I saw them kill one of you. I'm trying to protect you all."

The alien cautiously floated toward Cobalt and poked him in the forehead with one tentacle. Cobalt felt a rush of energy as it did this, but did nothing as a show of nonviolence. The alien then did the same thing to Rainbow Dash, who followed Cobalt's example. Then the alien looked at her mane and… hugged it.

Rainbow jerked backwards. "Hey! Stop it!"

Cobalt badly held back laughter. "I think it likes the colors. They _are_ beautiful…" he trailed off and cleared his throat.

Rainbow gently brushed the alien off, blushing. "Er… yeah." She shook her head to clear it. "So, what's your name, little guy?"

The alien made a series of almost squeaking noises, and then shook its head, looking like it was scolding itself and proceeding to hover off toward a bench and return with a scroll and a two vials of some sort of lavender liquid.

"What's this?" Cobalt asked, taking the scroll and unrolling it. It was written in a familiar cursive script. "Uh… so this stuff is translator fluid… it'll translate the aliens… '_I don't have much time to write this… please rescue me and the rest of the elements of harmony_'… hey, it's from Twilight!" he exclaimed, seeing the signature. "So she _was_ taken here."

"That would explain why Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy were missing today." Rainbow nodded in agreement. "But are we sure about this stuff?" she took one of the vials from the alien. "What if it turns out to be a trap?"

Cobalt scowled. "So you're saying we can't trust Twilight?"

"So what if I am?" Rainbow's tone changed from suspicious to defensive, her eyes narrowing.

"What's the deal with you two?!" Cobalt demanded angrily. "Why can't you ever just get along?!"

"That's none of your business!" Rainbow retaliated.

"Oh yeah?!"

"Yeah!"

"Fine!" Cobalt snatched the other vial of translator liquid from the alien and drank it. "I don't care what you think, I'm going to find out what's going on here and save our friends!"

"Go ahead!" Rainbow turned tail and stormed away, still keeping the vial of liquid with her, whether on accident or on purpose, Cobalt couldn't tell.

Cobalt might've yelled something after her, but the words died in his throat as he realized that he'd seen tears in her eyes as she shouted those last words at him. The weight of the situation came crashing back down on him, and he sat down, feeling hollow inside.

_Good_. The voice inside his head spoke up. _Feel that sadness and anger. Let it swell up inside of you and_–

_Shut up._ Cobalt thought miserably.

The alien had followed the heated exchange between the two pegasi as it happened, its eye sweeping back and forth like a tennis ball. It looked horribly confused, having not exactly understood all the words of the argument, but sensing that they were both furious.

Cobalt glanced up at the alien, suddenly feeling the need to apologize. "Sorry about that, little guy. I hope we didn't frighten you too much."

The alien made some more of its strange noises, but this time Cobalt got the gist of what it was saying without having to guess. 'You didn't,' was what it now said.

Cobalt smiled weakly. "Thanks. So, what's going on up here, anyway?"

'The bad shapes are killing us and steaking us.' The alien said. Cobalt frowned, but then realized that 'steaking' must mean 'taking', and the 'shapes' had to be the geometrical robots.

"What do they want with you?" Cobalt pressed.

'Our power.' The alien explained. 'We are called wisps, and are made of a power source called diaper-go-on energy that the shapes wish to harness.'

Cobalt snorted with laughter. "Diaper-go-on energy?"

The wisp shook its head, closing its eye in what could only be taken as an exasperated expression. '_Hyper_-go-on, strange horse creature.'

"That makes more sense." Cobalt agreed, realizing that the alien must be speaking fast and in a sort of dialectic way, which would make it hard for a basic, highly literal translator to understand, which was where the funny translations were coming from. "So you all are like batteries?"

'In a way, if that is how you see it.' The alien looked offended at Cobalt's frank comparison.

"And if Eggface wants batteries… then he's fueling something huge." Cobalt muttered. "Okay buddy, I'm gonna go and explore and try to figure some more stuff out." He said to the wisp. "Stick here until I get back. I shouldn't be too long."

'I will wait.' The alien consented with a nod.

Cobalt smiled and took off into the odd theme park to discover some more information, and hopefully to find Rainbow Dash while he was at it.

**I'm making chapters shorter again like I did in Wind Warrior. Haters gonna hate. But at least I'll be able to think on stuff more.**

**Radicool223 out!**


	3. Wheeling and Dealing

**I had an idea, and this is a good one this time! I'll let you all try to figure out what I'm doing, and if nobody's guessed it in three chapters I'll just tell you. I've just gotta say that I'm excited for this one!**

**Zacharythehedgehog: Hah! I see what you did there.**

**Zero the fox: Yeah, but they're fun all the same.**

**The Marvelous Mathmagician: Well thank you. I thought the translator fluid was rather ingenious if I do say so myself.**

**TheSonicGamer99: Uh oh indeed.**

**Inkwell Lynx: I'm so glad someone caught on to that! Thank you!**

**decode9: I always thought that if Yacker could talk he'd be one of those geniuses in disguise. I don't know. That was just my personal opinion.**

**jsun25: Wii version. I like them better.**

**BLTSweg: Indeed, I did.**

**graysean86: What's going to happen?**

**Abigail the Hegehog: Maybe… I don't know.**

**Psychic Nature: I thought that was a pretty good joke.**

**SubZPhantomX: I suppose… I guess we'll just have to see, eh?**

"Stupid Cobalt…" Rainbow muttered angrily to herself, blinking tears out of her eyes as she trudged through the tropical resort. "I don't need him…"

But she couldn't help but feel terribly guilty about leaving him on his own. As much as she was furious with him, she was also sad that they had even got into the argument in the first place. She couldn't even trust him to have a conversation, she realized, ears and wings drooping miserably at the thought. Her bottom lip quivered and once again a fresh wave of tears poured down her face.

She stopped walking and drew in a shaky breath, attempting and failing to dry her eyes with a hoof. She supposed it was time to do what she always did when she got sad: fly as fast as she could to attempt to escape her emotions. She smiled weakly and launched herself off the ground and toward a small enclosure that looked like it opened up on another side.

She had no idea where she was going, yes, but it didn't matter. As long as she explored every inch of this place she would eventually find something, and boy did she find something. She came across an energy-based capsule close to the artificial ground and accidentally flew straight through it, bursting it.

She braked and retreated back to where it had been. In its place, she found a little blue alien that was the same color as her fur. It looked as if it almost didn't care what was going on. Rainbow smiled, sensing a huge amount of energy inside of the alien. She extended a hoof in a careful offering of friendship, but the alien had other ideas.

It zoomed straight at her, becoming transparent and phasing directly into her body, which, needless to say, caused quite the outburst of surprise, dancing around in a panic, and of course, colorful language. Rainbow gasped as she felt an energy festering inside of her similar to the one she'd sensed emanating from the alien itself.

It… tickled. That was her first realization. But then she realized something much more than that. The energy… it seemed directly tied to what she had come to associate with her heart. The sudden surge caused her heart to beat rapidly, and sudden, unwelcome images rushed through her head. She saw some of her fondest memories, like the first time she'd done the sonic rainboom, and the day she'd moved to Ponyville and met her best friends. The images turned into snippets of memory, and suddenly she saw the day she'd met Cobalt, and the moment she'd realized how she felt toward him. Then that changed to when they'd first kissed and then to when they finally admitted their feelings to each other. The images began to flash even more rapidly, and suddenly she and Cobalt were arguing over the most trivial things, and then the images shut off, leaving her seeing nothing but cyan blue and feeling nothing but a rush of uncontrollable and random emotion.

All of this had happened in less than a second in reality, and now the spinning light blue ball she'd become launched itself toward a nearby wall, where it ricocheted off and took a path straight through a horde of Eggman-shaped orange robots, destroying them.

Rainbow Dash returned to her natural state, and the alien phased out of her, hovering off to find another victim to torture with their own past.

It _was_ torture, Rainbow realized, what she'd just been through. She'd just been smacked in the face with her own memories of the times she'd truly experienced a passionate emotion, and it stung worse than any physical blow ever could. Having been so vividly reminded of the intense love she'd felt toward Cobalt, only to have it violently snatched away by the cold reality… if she hadn't had enough mental fortitude, that might've been a whiplash effect powerful enough to drive her insane.

She sat down and wrapped her tail around her forehooves in an effort to calm herself and actually think in a rational sense about what was going on. She'd felt such a passionate burning inside of her when she'd momentarily relived the several months she'd been in love with Cobalt, and then felt once again that mistrust and passionate hatred she'd gained toward him when she realized he had betrayed her. It was as if the two feelings had somehow mixed into one afterward, and she was confused at which was which.

She recalled that she had been told once before that love and hate were virtually the same thing, and until now she hadn't really understood the meaning of that statement. Now all she could wonder after being dragged through the pits of both was which was which.

NOT FAR AWAY

Cobalt flew at top speed through pathways and oddly shaped sections of path, occasionally diving and sliding under gates for fun. Eggman might be bad at designing paths for ponies to actually walk on, but dang if this place wasn't as fun as heck to go fast through.

Over the intercom system that seemed to stretch through this huge place, Cobalt heard: _If there is a Cobalt Spikes or a Rainbow Dash on the premises, we ask that they please come to the front for… uh, something important. It doesn't really matter what, now does it?_

Cobalt snorted, putting his hoof through the forehead of another one of the Eggbots, as he'd started to call them. There wasn't a chance he'd do that. He worried about Rainbow Dash, though, and whether she'd comply with that stupid request.

But–why was he worried about her anyway? What reason did he have to care about her at all? Yet he couldn't stand the thought of her getting hurt. It was so confusing, the way his thoughts were strung together in random ways that didn't equate. His mind was completely jumbled. He briefly wondered whether this might be a product of his conflicted feelings toward Rainbow Dash, but then dismissed the thought, and then wondered whether that action was a product of what he'd just dismissed.

"Argh!" he shouted aloud, causing a few of the hovering robots to start in surprise.

Suddenly, he heard a familiar voice from inside a nearby walled-in area.

"And who are _you_ calling nothing?" Rainbow Dash demanded from inside the building.

Cobalt grimaced as he realized that since the only ones in the park were himself, Rainbow, and Eggman, there was only one possibility of who she was talking to.

He abandoned the robots he'd been about to smash and hurried toward the building.

INSIDE THE THING

"–And this time nothing can stop me!" Eggman (sitting in his Eggmobile) finished an unknown sentence with maniacal laughter that his two robot assistants backed nervously away from. A loud bang took his attention to a nearby wall that had been busted into.

The dust of the broken wall cleared, and Rainbow Dash stepped out, looking pissed off. "And who are _you_ calling nothing?" she spat.

"I don't get it." Cubot announced.

"Ah, the blue nuisance." Eggman growled, an arrogant grin on his face. "I knew you wouldn't be able to resist." He whipped out a handgun and fired it point blank at Rainbow.

Rainbow Dash froze, paralyzed by shock. She realized that she had no time to react to it, and cringed, only hoping that it wouldn't hit any of her vital organs.

A rush of wind blew past in front of her, and there was a clatter on the ground. She opened her eyes to see Cobalt standing in front of her with a hoof raised. His once-spiky dark blue mane (which had lost most of its luster, and only stuck up if he brushed it back) fell just slightly into his eyes and darkened his visage. "C-Cobalt?" she stammered in a mix of surprise and fear. "What… what happened?"

Cobalt glanced back at her with wide, insane, panicked eyes and grimaced a nervous grin. "Uh… he missed." The dark stallion said through gritted teeth. Rainbow thought he saw him step on a small bit of metal at his hooves, but she never got a chance to find out what it was, because he crushed it under his hoof.

"Both of you!" Eggman cackled, giving a fake bow. "I'm so humbled to be in the presence of the two fastest horses in the world." He glared at his robot assistants, losing his false-respectful demeanor. "Orbot, Cubot!" he barked, grinning evilly. "Send in the 'Big Boy'. Make sure it's on hyper drive."

"Right, sheriff." Cubot said in his vaguely western accent. "Whaddabout the aliens, though?"

"Collect more." Eggman said flatly. "Hasta-la-bye bye, suckers!" he laughed, and hovered off in his Eggmobile.

Orbot pressed a button on a remote control he'd been carrying and quickly backed up as panels opened on the floor and a huge one-eyed carrying a fancy metal wheel in its clawed fingers rose up, its eye glowing red and beginning to start to fire lasers at everything in the area.

A BREAK IN THE NARRATION AS IF TO INDICATE SOMETHING RESEMBLING WHAT WOULD BE A COMMERCIAL BREAK IF THIS WERE ON TELEVISION

Cobalt wasn't going to tell Rainbow Dash what had happened when she'd almost gotten shot. Ever. He didn't think she would be able to handle it.

But as the reader, you get the privilege of knowing what happened.

He'd rushed in, going just under the speed of sound, and flew into the path of the bullet. In the single instant before it had come into contact with him, he'd made an agreement with the darkness inside of him. In return for receiving power from it, he would become even more corrupted.

So he had held up his hoof and let out a pulse of dark energy, stopping the bullet in its tracks and leaving it to fall to the ground.

Now, though, he shrugged off this new evil and rushed through the air at the robot, dodging lasers and aiming straight for the eye. He got close enough to strike it, but as he was about to lash out, one if its hands knocked him away.

Rainbow Dash joined in the battle, shooting as a feathered dart toward the robot, but instead of being knocked away, the robot slashed at her, leaving a bloody gash across the right side of her chest, which she froze and looked down in horror at and then fell to the ground, sitting and trying to staunch the blood flow.

Cobalt growled having seen what the machine had done to her, and summoned up all the dark power he could, enveloping himself in shadows and rushing at the eye. He burst straight through it and it exploded behind him. He swept in and scooped up Rainbow Dash in his forelegs before she could be burnt to a crisp.

LATER

Rainbow bandaged her wound with fabric Cobalt had found in the first aid area of the resort, wincing as the bandages stained red with the continuous blood flow. It had slowed down a bit, but not too much. She glanced up at the stallion. He was now pacing back and forth along the brightly colored floor, grumbling to himself and shaking his head. He looked frazzled, like something had happened that he wasn't letting on.

She breathed shakily and took a chance. "Cobalt? What's going on?"

He turned to look at her with a grin. "Ah, nothing. Just wondering about stuff."

"Wondering…" Rainbow murmured. She cleared her throat. "D-do you ever wonder… who you were before you, you know, lost your memory?"

"Not anymore." Cobalt replied, sitting down. "I used to. But I don't now. I don't want to." He ran a hoof through his mane and stared at the ground. "I don't know who I was. But I do know who I am now. I am Cobalt Spikes. I'll never be anypony else." He added something else in an inaudible murmur that Rainbow could not hear.

The statement was, "And that is my curse."

Rainbow frowned, unsatisfied with his answer, but instead of pressing, she lay down on the ground and shut her eyes, feeling tired. She heard Cobalt yawn and do the same some yards away.

As she drifted off into blissful sleep, she heard him mutter, "He killed them all, you know." And then she fell asleep.

**Okay, that done. I'll tell you that the thing I'm doing is with the wisps in particular. That's all.**

**Radicool223 out!**


	4. Pain

**Let's do this!**

**BLTSweg: Because (Equestria Girls reference) it's AWESOME.**

**Thatdudethere789: Well thank you.**

**TheSonicGamer99: If you recall, she would've gotten shot and probably killed if he hadn't intervened in some way.**

**Zero the fox: Eh… close.**

**Abigail the Hedgehog: Thank you!**

**decode9: There's a reason for his behavior. It'll be revealed soon, and soon is sooner than you might think.**

**Inkwell Lynx: Cobalt did admit it, but having a person be a complete beach to you can… complicate things.**

A blue box phased into existence with a strange sound almost like a key on cello strings. It made another sound almost like a distant, echoey cannon shot. The doors of the box opened and out trotted a chestnut earth pony stallion and gray pegasus mare.

The stallion grinned, still not opening his eyes. "Here we are, Miss Hooves," he said in an accent that could be likened to that of a certain fashionista mare. "Alien worlds!" he opened his eyes and his face suddenly morphed into confusion. "Which, ah, apparently look like Los Pegasus…"

"Uh, Doctor?" the pegasus began. "This doesn't seem like –"

"Yeah, I think this is wrong…" the Doctor muttered.

"Yes Doctor, but why are they–"

"I don't think I set it to random this time…" the Doctor went on, putting a hoof to his chin in thought. "Maybe…"

"Doctor!" the pegasus said more loudly, glancing downward at the ground before them.

"Hm?" the Doctor glanced at his companion. "Yes, Derpy?"

"Why are _they_ here?" Derpy once again nodded toward the ground before them.

The Doctor frowned as he looked down at his hooves and saw Cobalt Spikes and Rainbow Dash laying on the ground before him. Cobalt's teeth were gritted and his eyes squeezed shut against a nightmare. "Well. That's odd." He muttered after a moment's thought. "They shouldn't be on an alien world… unless this is–oh." He said, his mouth forming a perfectly round circle as he said that word, and forming a tight line as if he was in deep thought, accompanied by narrowed eyes. After a second of consideration, he announced in his usual cheerful voice (though this time it was somewhat strained. "Ah, that's all right. I'd bet that if there's a problem here they have it under control. Back to the TARDIS, Derpy!"

"But Doctor," Derpy began, turning her concerned wall-eyed gaze on her friend.

"The TARDIS, Ditzy!" the Doctor said through his teeth, almost seeming to force the smile this time.

Derpy frowned, now knowing that something was wrong. The Doctor never used her real name unless he was under some sort of stress, whether physical or mental. "But I have questions–"

"Ditzy, _now_!" The Doctor snapped, glaring at his companion. Upon seeing her hurt expression and the tears forming in the corners of her eyes, he suddenly recalled how sensitive she could be sometimes, and sighed, lowering his eyes. "I'm sorry," he began. "But we _cannot_ stay here. It would disrupt time… space… this dimension itself, and possible more."

"I-I understand that now…" Derpy replied in a much quieter voice than before. As much as the Doctor was a good friend to her… and in her mind, more than just a friend… sometimes he truly scared her, and that was when he got agitated and dark and brooding like this. "But… but I do have questions that it can't hurt to answer."

The Doctor exhaled, glancing back up to meet her odd eyes. "Okay. I suppose that's reasonable."

"He… Cobalt, I mean… he looks so sad. You seem to know something about him… do you know why he's like that?" Derpy cast another concerned glance down at the dark blue stallion.

The Doctor's eyes turned distant and unfocused. "He _is_ sad… and he has a reason to be that way. He's seen more… lost more… than any ordinary person should ever have to. Almost as much as…" he trailed off. After a moment's pause, he continued. "He just can't handle it. And when he can't handle it…" his vision snapped into focus and he glanced at Derpy. "Ditzy, have you ever heard of a fugue state before?"

Derpy thought for a second. "No, I don't think so. I've heard of those music fugues from a long time ago, though." She added.

The Doctor cracked a smile. "They are quite amazing, aren't they?" the sad expression returned. "But, Ditzy, we really do have to go, and I mean _now_, before they wake up."

Derpy sighed, not having her question fully answered, but she then resigned her arguments, remembering that she hardly ever got a straight answer out of the Doctor. "Okay, Doctor."

The two trotted back into the box, the Doctor beginning some excited spiel about a world made of entirely sponges (at least where he came from, mind you) as the doors closed and the box once again vanished.

ONE COLORS THEME LATER

Rainbow Dash blinked her eyes open and saw that Cobalt had disappeared from where he had lay down before. She didn't bother considering this for too long, because whenever she woke up, she was almost half in a dream-state. Rainbow didn't take catnaps. Either she was asleep or she wasn't, or, as she was now, in that moment of transition between the two.

Not thinking of the events of yesterday, she stretched, but immediately let out a sharp cry of pain, flinching as the scab that had formed over the gash on her chest was pulled taught and her brain screamed in protest to the pain the motion caused.

She immediately reverted into a standing position and stood there for a moment to try to get her nervous system to calm down from the momentary burning it had just been subjected to. She breathed shakily, everything about yesterday rushing into her mind at once. She swallowed hard and hesitantly pulled the thick, blood-soaked bandages away from her wound. The wound had indeed scarred over, dark, scarlet red dried blood connecting the sliced skin. She determined that it at least wasn't infected from the minimal medical knowledge she'd begged Fluttershy to teach her in case she got injured while practicing her aerial maneuvers.

She smiled ironically. The thought of ever doing something so trivial hadn't crossed her mind in two and a half weeks, ever since she'd…

Ugh, she couldn't even think of it without dragging up a huge load of emotional baggage that kept her awake and made her heart feel like it was tearing itself to pieces.

Shrugging it off for the time being, she heaved a deep sigh and went to find Cobalt, only to have him walk back to the area where they had spent the night before she could get out of it. They nearly knocked each other over, instead getting so close face to face that their muzzles touched.

There was an awkward silence for a couple of seconds in which all that happened was they stared straight into each other's eyes, completely expressionless as the moments dragged on and became successively more awkward before Cobalt mumbled around the paper bags he held in his teeth, "Er, I got breakfast."

Rainbow merely squeaked in response, finding herself curiously unable to make any other sound. Her face burned, and she immediately closed her mouth, her eyes wide with embarrassment at having made such a girlish noise.

Cobalt dropped the bag on the ground as to speak more freely. "A-are you… blushing?" he asked.

That was enough to shock Rainbow into normal speech. "N-no!" she protested, pushing him away, but more softly than she would've… or should've, following her thought process. She walked a few steps off and pointedly turned her back to him.

"Whatever." Cobalt muttered, his eyes flashing gray and seeming to grow even sharper in ferocity than they had before. "Look, I found a place fully stocked with hay burgers, so go ahead and eat the one I brought back for you if you want."

Rainbow opened her mouth to refuse, but then immediately thought better of it, realizing that the last time she'd had a full meal was days ago, and she was as hungry as a… a…

While she attempted to think of a proper simile for that expression, she busied herself with instead asking a question of her dark companion. "But what about you?"

Cobalt snorted, turning his harsh gaze on her and thus relieving the ground from its undeserved sentence of agitated staring. The ground was duly thankful, for it had been quite confused about what it had done to anger the pegasus in the first place. "I'm surprised you even care." Cobalt said caustically, glaring at her.

Rainbow was uncertain about what had happened to make him so P. , but she wasn't about to just let him be like that. "I don't care," she growled in response.  
>"I just want to know."<p>

Cobalt closed his narrowed eyes, gritting his teeth as if he were in pain. "It–doesn't matter. I'm _fine_. I'm just not hungry."

Rainbow glared at him as she snatched the bag up from the ground and began to violently tear at its contents, eating the hay burger (which was actually quite good) in quick, savage gulps.

As she ate, she began to feel a pain in her chest, as if her very heart were twisting. It was painful, and she wondered whether it was some symptom of the wound, but observation proved to make her none the wiser.

After a few seconds silence, Cobalt spoke up in a less hostile, but still agitated, tone. "I found a map," he began, jabbing a hoof at the sky… er… space, above them, toward a creamy orange colored miniature planet. "It says that there's a way to get to that planet, and something seems wrong about that chain thing that ties it to this place." He winced as fractured images of a small planet being chained to the ground of another flashed through his mind. He wasn't sure where they came from, but whatever they were, they gave him a bad feeling. "I say we go there, find whatever's going on, and smash it to bits."

"Finally something I can agree with," Rainbow said aggressively, tossing the paper bag into a recycling bin instead of the trash (she wasn't a monster) and slamming one hoof into another like she was envisioning crushing something between them. "What's causing it?"

_I may assist with that question's answering_, said a quite masculine voice inside of Rainbow's mind. If she tried to discern it from reality, she could hear vague squeaking noises coming from some point in the air behind her, and turned around to see that alien from earlier approaching. _I have conversed with many of my friends, and discerned that the things holding our planets in this position of space are generators that shoot out ice cream_.

Cobalt snorted, cracking his first and probably to be only smile of the day. "Uh, Yacker? I don't think that was ice cream shooting out of those generators."

The alien faced him with a look as annoyed as a one-eyed creature could convey. _I am _quite_ sure that you are not so stupid as to believe that I would ever say something as ludicrous as that. Am I correct?_ The so-named Yacker added sarcastically.

Cobalt frowned and glared at Rainbow Dash. "I see he's been taking pointers from you."

Rainbow felt another stab at her heart when she heard him say that. "I–shut up! I don't even know what your problem is!"

"My problem is that–" Cobalt appeared to have the words catch in his throat, and he instead breathed hard and gritted his teeth. "It doesn't matter what my problem is! Look, Dash–"

"_Don't _call me that–" Rainbow growled warningly.

Cobalt sighed. "All I'm saying is we go to this… 'Sugar Mountain' planet and rip the generator to _pieces_." He grinned savagely.

_You sound quite violent, dark one_. Yacker noted.

"I _am_." Cobalt glared at the alien aggressively, looking as if he would just as readily rip _him_ to pieces as he would an evil generator. A moment later, he rectified this statement, looking shocked that he'd said that. "I–uh, I mean, no I'm not."

Rainbow frowned, glancing at her friend with even more fear than she had for him before. She threw this off, however, preferring (for some odd reason that she couldn't put her hoof on) not to think of him as some sort of insane, scary pony. She actually didn't want to think badly of him, no matter what he did.

Her mind whirled as she tried to deal with all the conflicted emotions she was feeling. She took a deep breath and tried to clear her mind, but her thoughts were still conflagrated (**burning**) with white-hot fury. "There are five planets, right?" she asked, her voice deadly calm.

_Yes_. Yacker agreed.

"Then wouldn't it make more sense to split up?" she proposed.

Cobalt groaned in reaction to her idea. "Look, I'm just trying to the safest thing, Dash–"

Rainbow's anger finally overwhelmed her whirled around and tackled him, pinning him to the ground by his shoulders. "Don't–call–me–that." she growled, glaring at him.

"Get _off_ of me!" Cobalt exploded, shoving her away.

In his rage, he accidentally struck Rainbow on her wound, causing her to collapse with a sharp, high-pitched cry of pain. She'd never known something could hurt so much, and her vision swam with spots.

"Sweet Celestia…" Cobalt breathed, taking a couple of steps closer with a horrified expression on his face. "Rainbow, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to–"

"Ho ho ho!" they heard a nastily familiar voice laugh from above them. "I think I showed up late to the party!"

"Eggman." Cobalt snarled, glaring up at the overweight evil genius hovering above in his flying pod. The dark blue pegasus stepped in front of Rainbow Dash as if he were attempting to defend her. "I swear, if you try _anything_ that will hurt her…" he trailed off, leaving the rest of his threat to the imagination

Rainbow would have nothing of that. She heaved herself to her hooves and took several shaky steps that put her in front of Cobalt.

"Rainbow, stay behind me. It's my fault you're hurt–" Cobalt protested.

"Shut up." Rainbow cut him off turning to glower at him. "I don't want your protection."

She ended up regretting that decision as she felt a cold electric shock enter her back and her senses go numb. She suddenly realized that her limbs wouldn't move when she told them to, and then her vision went black.

NARRATION SWITCH

Cobalt was horrified at what he'd done. The situation had escalated so quickly that he hadn't had time to follow it. Yacker had fled at some point during the argument, and it was probably a good thing he had. Cobalt hadn't meant to hurt Rainbow Dash. He'd just acted out of self-defense and instinct, and he'd just ended up causing more pain.

Rainbow now crouched in an attack stance. Her narrowed eyes stared glazedly ahead, almost as if she wasn't actually looking at Cobalt, but past him.

"Oh, this is amazing!" Eggman cackled. "It works even better than expected! Rainbow Dash, one step to the right!" he ordered.

Rainbow obediently took one pace to her right, which was Cobalt's left, since she was facing him, positioned between him and Eggman. In that moment, Cobalt realized what had happened. Eggman must've hit her with some sort of mind control beam, because she would never have followed his instructions otherwise. Now he didn't know how to snap her out of it.

"You know what?" Eggman said, putting a finger to his chin as if in deep thought. "I know what could make this better. Rainbow Dash?"

Rainbow turned her head to look at him.

Eggman smiled sinisterly. "Kill."

**And nobody saw that one coming. I can be at least 99% sure of that. Also, that scene escalated quickly. Wow.**

**Radicool223 out!**


	5. Pain 20

**decode9: Aw come on, did everyone see it coming?**

**TheSonicGamer99: (Gosh dang it, everyone saw it!) I really hope so too.**

**Inkwell Lynx: I hope you'll get what you predicted.**

**BLTSweg: Oookay then.**

**Zacharythehedgehog: I know it was a little earlier, but this fits better with my version of the game… thing…**

**Abigail the Hedgehog: Thanks!**

**Rainbow Rock: LOL.**

Cobalt dived to the side as Rainbow Dash lunged at him, teeth bared. Her eyes had lost the glazed luster they'd held before and now were narrowed in fury and savage intent. She barely missed biting (and probably tearing out) his throat.

That wasn't a move she'd normally use in combat, Cobalt realized, instead, it was an assault maneuver that would've killed him. Just as Eggman had ordered, she was attacking to kill rather than to win.

Cobalt winced as he realized that this was a battle he would have to win, even though he would rather die than hurt Rainbow. He would have to find some way to knock her out without killing her and reverse the mind control. But he didn't want to fight her. He… he wasn't even sure that he could.

He flew directly at her, trying to tackle her to the ground, but she was ready for that, ducking underneath his charge and punching upward, driving her hoof into his stomach and knocking the wind out of him. His vision went temporarily black and he slammed into the ground. He blindly thrust out with both hooves and somehow managed to stop her from once again biting out his throat. His hooves caught her shoulders, and they were in a tiny moment of standstill with them face to face and her snarling and glowering down at him. He drove his hind legs into her stomach and kicked her off him, causing her to squeak with pain, and causing his heart to once again twist with terrible guilt.

Cobalt realized that she was fighting a full intensity while he wasn't. Normally he estimated that he could beat her if they ever got into a physical confrontation, but he had never expected that it would happen in real life. The circumstances were ones he'd never even imagined, and now… he wasn't sure of anything anymore…

"Dash, come on!" he pleaded, hoping absurdly that somehow he could manage to break through the absolute control Eggman had imposed on her. His efforts were in vain, however, because his mind controlled friend, in leave of snapping out of it, shot at him once more and wrapped him in what could've been a hug if she hadn't been trying to snap his neck. He thought quickly and managed to strike her in her chest like he had before, forcing her to collapse in a trembling heap, cradling her wound.

Eggman growled aloud. The insane fat man had previously left the fight alone until now, but he obviously hadn't expected it to go out of his favor. "Get up!" he snarled at Rainbow's collapsed form. When she didn't move, he slammed his fist on the control board of his Eggmobile with a shout of, "Bah!"

Rainbow let out a groan as if she were waking up, and tried to hold herself up with her hooves, but then gasped and gave a high-pitched yelp as the pain she had taken while mind controlled hit her again full force. She fell forward and Cobalt rushed forward, catching her before she could hit the ground.

The dark blue pegasus glared up at Eggman. "You… you are a dead man." He growled. "When I get my hooves on you…"

_Yes… channel your anger. You know you want to hurt him for what he's done_. The voice in Cobalt's head murmured encouragingly.

Cobalt felt sickened as he realized that the voice was terrifyingly accurate. He gulped as he wondered how far he'd actually descended into the depths of darkness it offered. He'd thought he was staying far enough away, but now…

Eggman snorted. "And what would that do? I already died." He then looked thoughtful for an unusual moment. "Well, I suppose I did. I uploaded my consciousness before I died, if I did die." He shrugged. "No matter. The point is: your threats mean _nothing_."

"Then I can make you suffer worse than death." Cobalt found himself saying. "I'm warning you, stay the _Tartarus_ away from her."

Eggman shrugged and hovered away, leaving Cobalt in a state of self-questioning and horror at his actions.

He tried to breathe, but found himself unable to draw in enough air to fully fill his lungs. He felt his eyes moisten with tears, but instead of letting himself break down, he forced himself to be strong for his unconscious friend. He sat down and hugged Rainbow close to him, not wanting to ever hurt her again.

"I'm sorry…" he murmured, stroking her mane with one hoof as he shut out all other sound besides her steady breathing, not wanting to hear anything else.

ONE COLORS INTRO LATER

Cobalt must've dozed off, because he was woken up by Rainbow stirring. He blinked his eyes open and looked down at her. She yawned hugely and opened her eyes, looking up at him. "Morning, Cobalt." She murmured, looking as if she was still half in a dream. "What did I miss?" she yawned again and began to return his tight embrace, burying her muzzle in his fur and smiling. "Mmm, you're soft." She mumbled.

Cobalt was just wondering whether the mind control had damaged her brain somehow when she gasped and pushed him away, her eyes wide with panic and a blush covering her face. "I–uh–I mean, g-get off of me!" she stammered, brushing a few loose strands of hair out of her eyes in an effort to look natural. "Wh-what happened?" she demanded.

"Wait, you mean you don't remember?" Cobalt asked, hope beginning to flower in his heart.

"I remember–" Rainbow's eyes became unfocused. "I remember you being a jerk this morning." she glared at him, the familiar fire returning to her eyes. "What the heck was that about?!"

Cobalt inwardly breathed a sigh or relief and thanked the universe for giving him a second chance.

_You don't deserve it_. The voice said spitefully.

_I don't._ Cobalt thought in defeat. _But she does._

"I'm sorry." He said aloud, sincerity in the depths of his gray eyes. "I really am. I don't know what I was thinking. Please, can you forgive me?"

Rainbow stared at him, her face twisted in some expression Cobalt found impossible to read. He almost thought he saw a tear fall out of her eyes. Her gaze fell toward the ground, and she whispered something Cobalt couldn't make out.

He was just wondering how it could've happened that his apology could've made her so sad when she spoke up, "I–thank you…" she murmured, not meeting his eyes. "I didn't think you would… that's…"

There was another moment of silence before Cobalt cleared his throat. "So anyway, I was thinking that maybe we could split up and tackle the generators on the planets."

"My thoughts exactly." Rainbow glanced up at him, her eyes unfocused and confused, as if something was going on in her mind that she wasn't showing. "So… how would we–?"

"I thought I could take Starlight Carnival and 'Under Maintenance; Do Not Enter', and you could do Sweet Mountain and Aquarium Park." Cobalt shuddered. "Water… I can't do that."

"Cobalt, why are you being so nice?" Rainbow asked out of nowhere. She looked straight into Cobalt's eyes, and he wondered what she was reading there, and if it was similar to what Lancelot had seen just two weeks ago. Rainbow appeared to choke on her words. "Y-you have every right to be furious with me… so why aren't you?"

"Because I can't afford to stay mad at you." He closed his eyes and let out a sigh as he relived the mental torture he'd lived through just a few hours ago. "Trust me, it just hurts us both." He gasped and opened his eyes quickly as he felt Rainbow… hugging him? Was that really–?

She pulled away, a sad smile on her face and a confused look in her eyes. "I'll see you later, Cobalt. I'm going to Sweet Mountain." And she flew off towards the teleportation pads that they'd located on the map.

Cobalt was once again left alone with his own thoughts in a state of shock and confusion. He sat down once more and began to wonder about what the heck was going on in his mind and heart.

**Short chapter, but whatever. I've got other stuff to do anyway. I hope this was satisfactory to your all's expectations.**

**Radicool223 out!**


	6. Meet the Boss

**Well, nobody got the exact purpose of the wisps yet, so I'm going to tell you. They, based on their color and attitude, are catalysts for extremes of certain emotions. The cyan wisp was for blazing passion, and the rest are to be decided. I'm switching some of their locations from where they were in the game to suit my own purposes, but they still will be the same wisps, albeit minus a few that didn't fit with my ideas.**

Yacker returned soon after, his one eyebrow knitted in worry. _Creature,_ he began. _Are you okay? You and the untrusting female one appeared to be in conflict, so I fled_. He lowered his head in shame. _I sincerely apologize for that._

"Ah, it's fine, buddy." Cobalt said, looking up at the alien with a small smile. "I would've done the same thing. I'm probably more of a coward than you." Sadly, he didn't know whether he was lying or not. He could well have been telling the complete truth.

_Why do you fight_? Yacker asked.

Cobalt glanced toward the ground, the momentary smile he'd had vanishing. "That's complicated, Yacker." He muttered with a frown. As the dark current of his negative emotions threatened to once again consume him, he turned his mind to other matters. "Hey, do you think you could stay here and keep watch, buddy? We need your help to hold down the fort here."

_You are just attempting to keep me safe_. Yacker translated.

"That's all I'm always trying to do." Cobalt whispered inaudibly, gritting his teeth against the wave of sadness that now made him almost break down in tears once again. That seemed to be what he was fighting against the most lately, the temptation to start crying in despair and never stop. He… it was hope that had been his defining characteristic, and now he could find it inside of him to hope for anything positive.

It seemed that no matter how strong his conviction for good was, nothing ever turned out in his favor. Rainbow Dash had rejected him for a mistake, the dark creature had appeared for no reason at all… he now consistently regarded himself as the most miserable pony alive. He could remember nopony in Equestrian history that ever underwent this amount of undeserved suffering. The land seemed to have always been in a state of peace and harmony with only random, brief moments or eras of chaos. Though, he hadn't learned about all of Equestrian history yet. He'd have to talk to Twilight about that, if he ever saw her again.

But now he had a job, and when he had a job, he didn't worry about himself. He was unimportant in comparison to the lives of an entire alien population. He had no hope, but that didn't mean he couldn't give others hope.

He took off at breakneck speed toward the warp panels that would take him to different planets. As he flew, he thought about his feelings toward Rainbow Dash. He loved her; he knew that. But why did he? She… she seemed to be trying everything to make him want to stay away from her. She acted like he hated him all the time, pushing him away when all he wanted to do was get close to her again. She couldn't let go of the mistake he'd made.

He wanted to scream. He really did. He felt like he was going to lose it every second of his life. Everything weighed on his back, and all he could do was bear it in silence. He had nothing to turn to. _Nothing_. His friends couldn't know. They would reject him like a freak. Twilight knew, but she worried too much to help, and Rainbow Dash–sweet Celestia… he didn't even want to go into that. It was too much.

But when he was helping others, he couldn't think about that, and that made him happy. Those were the only times he could feel happy. And he had to help people. This was the only thing that could give him enjoyment anymore.

So he landed on the warp pad and teleported to Starlight Carnival.

WITH RAINBOW DASH

Rainbow shot through the sugary sweet smelling air of the Sweet Mountain. She liked this place. She honestly did. It was distracting enough to keep her mind off other… less desirable… matters.

The robots hovering in the air provided springpads for her flight. She would land on one, kick off it and send it spiraling to the ground, and jump to the next. As much as she liked flying, sometimes it was fun to just use her wings for speed and move through a place as fun as this like an earth pony.

She launched herself through a thin gap in the walls, grazing the side of her face on the edge. She slowed down and hovered, bringing a hoof to her face and flinching as it came back coated with a thin layer of blood.

She was losing her touch, she realized. She felt… incomplete, like half of her was missing and because of that she couldn't operate at full capacity.

But she didn't… couldn't let that bother her now. She was close to something important. She knew it in that way that ponies write about in books. She'd heard of a name for it somewhere, something like 'the sixth sense'. Well, whatever it was, she knew she had to be close to a generator.

She was right. The moment she rounded the next corner, making it out of the claustrophobic gap in the wall. The generator was big, and sparked purple at the top. Out of it extended a long yellow tractor beam chain that connected, in the distance, to the tropical resort in the sky.

She smiled at her luck and made her way toward the generator, going slowly as to avoid any traps, but before she could destroy it, the ground began to rumble and a giant metal monstrosity swelled up out from behind the edge of the ledge where the generator was perched. Rainbow gasped as she saw a cannonball heading at her face, and rolled out of the way as the ground exploded.

MEANWHILE

Cobalt Spikes jumped out of the way as an Egg-bot (as such he'd nicknamed them) swiped at him with a lance it held. He easily dodged it and kicked the robot to the ground. He smiled and narrowed his eyes as he drove a hoof straight into its fallen form, smashing completely through it and crashing into the glass floor he stood on with enough force to crack it.

It was fun. That was the only way to describe how he felt as he tore apart the evil robots. That was a scary thought… having fun as he destroyed. Why couldn't he just be happy like he used to?

He felt sad as he reflected on the carefree days of not long ago, when he'd just woken up in Equestria, when his romance with Rainbow Dash had been no more complicated than a simple crush. That had been nice days. But he could never go back to that time, no matter how much he wished it. Too much had happened.

Or had it?

_It has_. The voice in his head told him.

Why did it always seem to reflect his worst feelings? It was like it existed for no other reason that to make him feel horrible. He didn't want to feel negative. Not around his friends. Whenever he was alone, he ended up doing some savage act of violence or giving in to his dark side somehow. But when he was around his friends, somehow the voice got quieter… at least, ever since he became somewhat aware of its power over him (**Recall that he still doesn't remember how it managed to take over his mind**).

He swallowed hard on a dry throat. So it that were the case… then he just had to pretend he was faking his assumed happiness to keep his friends from finding out who he really was. He would have to fake all the time. He wasn't sure how he could do that, but it was worth a try.

"Okay, little guy," he said aloud.

_YOU DARE REFER TO ME AS LITTLE?!_ The voice thundered.

"Oh, shut up already." Cobalt told it, a small smile crossing his face. He retained that smile as the pain started, like a knife was stabbing him and then dragging the blade down his sides, like it was trying to cut him in half. He couldn't show any weakness to the darkness living inside of him. He held his head high and trotted through the luminous hallways of one of the starships in the Starlight Carnival, beginning to hummed a little tune Fluttershy had taught him on one of those quiet days when they hung out.

_You forget I can read your thoughts._ The voice sneered, shocking him with even more powerful electric current of pain.

"I know." Cobalt smiled, rolling his eyes and launching himself up onto a ledge. "You can't touch me."

_I might not be able to touch you, but I can do this._

A sudden, violent headache seized hold of Cobalt's mind in addition to the stabbing pains and electric shocks. Cobalt's smile wavered, but he kept his head held high defiantly and hummed even louder. And just to deny the voice even further, he flooded his mind with memories of the happy times he'd had with his friends, all the experiences they'd shared, and the knowledge that there were more to come.

He felt… well, he felt happy. But not happy in the only way he'd been able to be for such a long time, when he destroyed things; this time it was pure, unadulterated happiness. He felt like could finally, really smile, even if it was just in defiance of the thing that told him he couldn't.

Then he got another reason to smile, finding that the generator was sitting on a starship just out of the exit of the one he was standing in. He took a step out of the gaping, square-shaped hole in the side of the ship and grinned as a section of energy-based purple road appeared as he set a hoof on where it should be. Taking heart and forcing the voice to the back of his mind, he took off at a gallop toward the generator.

Before he could get there, however, he ran straight into a sort of force field. He stopped after slamming into it, and slowly placed the base of a hoof to it. It was purple and seemed to only appear when he came in proximity to it, almost like it was made of the same technology as the road he was currently walking on. But before he had the chance to make any more observations, an alarm sounded and the force field glowed red all around.

He backed away as what looked like a robot starship swelled up from beside the road and rocketed off in another direction. Cobalt grinned and set himself in a ready position. "Let's do this!" He shouted, and took off at breakneck speed after the robot as it began to fire bullets of energy at him.

**There's that!**

**Now, I'll tell you this: anyone can predict what I'm planning on doing, then you are a master of literature. I'm just saying.**

**Radicool223 out!**


	7. Sweet Mountain

**Time for another chapter, since I feel so bad about not posting in what felt like forever.**

BACK IN EQUESTRIA

Luna frowned as she stared up at the night sky where she was about to raise the moon. She turned to her sister, who had decided to meditate on the same balcony where Luna was raising the moon. It was a coincidence, yes, but it seemed like something more than that to Luna's slightly paranoid mind. Not paranoid in the bad way, though, more in the way that allowed her to more easily read ponies. "Sister?" she asked.

Celestia opened one eye, which she used to look over at her sister. "Yes?"

"Dost thou…" Luna wasn't sure how to phrase her next question, knowing that she'd just get the automatic answer that made Celestia's emotions such an enigma. "Dost thou ever worry of our subjects' welfare?"

Celestia smiled. "Of course I do. All the time. I'm always concerned about their safety."

There it was. That answer that seemed like an involuntary reflex, not actually too honest. Sometimes Luna wondered how much the thousand years she'd been banished on the moon had affected her lonely sister's heart. She certainly didn't seem as friendly as she'd used to, a thousand years ago, more like the ruler who was just trying to hold things together, outside… and in. Maybe… maybe that was why she couldn't harness the power of the elements of harmony anymore.

"I mean, dost thou ever feel as if they are in some sort of danger… some sort of trouble that even we cannot conquer?" Luna rephrased her question, hoping for something more out of the answer this time.

Shockingly, she got it. "Luna…" Celestia sighed, losing the rigid, stoic stance she'd held and lowering her head and shoulders, as if something was actually weighing down on her back. She lost her smile and she closed her eyes as if she didn't have the energy to even keep them open. "I… I know I can't do everything. Neither of us can. That's why we need each other. We need to defend each other as well as our subjects. I didn't know that a thousand years ago. That's why I didn't know you were becoming so corrupted. I could've helped, or at least tried to. I'm sorry for that."

Luna raised an eyebrow. This was the first time her sister had actually brought up her banishment since she'd returned. Where was she going with this?

"What I mean to say," Celestia continued. "Is that I sense some impending doom upon not just our land, but the entire of Equestria. I cannot believe Cobalt Spikes with his claims of darkness coming. He is not to be trusted, but there is something that is approaching. I know that, and I feel you sense it as well."

Luna frowned, the affections she'd once felt for Cobalt stopping her from simply allowing her sister to make the blanket statement that he could not be trusted. "Why can we not trust him?" she pressed.

"Can you not sense it?" Celestia opened her eyes again. "He is corrupted. I sensed something unstable inside of him from the beginning, but now it is more apparent than ever. I simply have to trust that Twilight will be able to keep this in check for as long as possible."

"Unstable…" Luna murmured, her mind working rapidly, remembering what Cobalt had told her once about his memory loss. "D-does such a thing have to do with his amnesia?"

"I don't know." Celestia said flatly.

Luna inhaled slowly. When her sister didn't know something… that was really bad. Celestia always seemed to know more than any other pony, even understanding more than she should at times. So on the rare occasion she didn't know something… or made a mistake… well, history provided evidence for how catastrophically that could turn out. "So…" she began. "What… how dost thou reason to act under these circumstances?"

Her sister turned to her with a look on her face that could almost be taken as scared, and said in the most quavering tone Luna had ever heard her use, "I don't know."

ONE COLORS THEME LATER

Rainbow had been almost knocked unconscious by the pure force of the explosion, and now she stood up with blurry vision. She couldn't determine exactly what was going on because of her current vision impediment, and struggled to make sense of the mass of unintelligible orange and yellow and cream that her senses presented her with. In the distance (for her ears were ringing too), she heard an alarm going off, and what sounded like… a pirate shouting orders to somepony? No, that couldn't be it.

Desperately she pawed at an ear with her hoof, attempting to correct it. That succeeded, but the pirate's voice didn't go away, and then she felt the point of a blade at her throat.

"I wouldn't move, lass." The pirate's voice, now much closer, warned. Rainbow blinked rapidly a couple of times, and her vision corrected itself. She was now staring into the face of a rotund robot pirate that was leveling a long, deadly looking sword at her throat. "We know about ye. Me crew and myself were informed directly by Doctor Eggman all about ye."

"Eggman…" Rainbow gulped, knowing that the mad scientist would have data about all her strengths… and weaknesses. He would know how to… break her.

She shook her head and stood up straight. "That doesn't matter. I'm too unpredictable for data anyway."

"Unpredictable, eh?" the robot asked, pressing the point of his sword further forward, and Rainbow felt a trickle of blood stemming from where it was leveled. "I believe I've gotten ye in a death lock."

"I'm never in a death lock." Rainbow argued defiantly.

"Aren't ye?" the robot scoffed. "Now come quietly, lass, and maybe we'll give yer little boyfriend time to save ye before we kill ye."

Despite the situation, Rainbow felt her heart stop as the robot called Cobalt her boyfriend. It felt like the chasm in her core, which she'd managed to almost forget for a while, had reopened even wider and deeper than it had been before. She felt tears spring to her eyes. "S-stop it!" she pleaded. "D-don't–"

"Oh, am I jesting at scars?" the robot poked the scar that had formed over Rainbow's chest wound as it said this, causing her to gasp in pain. "Now surrender."

Eggman might have been a genius. Oh yes, left unopposed, he would easily conquer a world and force it into subservience under his oppression. But even with all his skills in science and knowledge of how to use data, he still failed to compensate one thing, and that is the unpredictability of a pony with free will, and especially one under emotional turmoil. And that was what his creation's downfall was now.

A sudden rage overtook Rainbow Dash's emotions, and she acted faster than anyone could've expected. Letting out a beastly shout of her fury, she quickly knocked away the blade threatening to stab her through the neck, pinned down the robot, punched a hole into it and ripped away at that hole with her teeth, tearing away wires and cracking the thin metal shell that made up its body by brute force alone.

By the time she'd come back to her senses, the ship was sinking in a fiery mess into the maple syrup lake, and the robot pirate lay dead at her hooves.

Narrowing her eyes, she flew over to the generator and kicked the 'off' switch so hard that it sparked yellow and the entire thing not only powered down, but shut off for good.

She snorted. "That'll teach him to mess with me."

Her ears pricked up as she heard muffled screaming from inside a nearby gingerbread house, and cautiously trotted over to it. She opened the door to see Pinkie Pie gagged and tied up in the dark room, like she'd been locked in here after a kidnapping. She'd been making the noise, seeing as it got louder. Her eyes were narrowed and she looked furious.

Rainbow frowned and untied the gag. Pinkie hadn't seen her yet, so when the gag fell away, she was still going on her tirade. The stream of profanity that came out of her mouth before she realized that she could make words again was so vulgar that I choose to omit it. When she_ did_ realize that she wasn't gagged anymore, she turned her head grinned sheepishly as she saw that it was Rainbow who'd rescued her. "Er, you didn't hear any of that, right?"

"I did." Rainbow's expression was set in that of a poker face, not showing any emotion. "Pinkie, even I don't know some of those. What does–"

"Not important, Dashie~" Pinkie dismissed in a hasty sounding, singsong voice. "Can you _please_ untie me?"

"Right, right…" Rainbow muttered, shaking her head and going to work on the rope.

"Ooh, that's much better." Pinkie smiled happily, shaking out any cramps she'd gotten and stretching. "So, is Cobalt okay?"

Rainbow narrowed her eyes. "Like _I_ care." She scoffed.

Pinkie's expression began to turn sad. "Come on, Dashie… you and I both know he's changed."

"Yeah, for the worse."

Pinkie's eyebrows knitted in worry. "He's so alone…"

"Alone? How?" Rainbow demanded, having felt the same very recently.

Pinkie sighed. "I know you wouldn't understand, but you've gotta think: he woke up with no memory, no friends, no past to turn to for guidance… On top of that, he's the only colt in a group of fillies… and, well, he's just sad and lonely all the time. Please tell me you've at least noticed that?"

Rainbow considered for a moment. She'd not seen any evidence of Cobalt ever being lonely, but she had seen that he was sad. That realization drilled into her heart, but she quickly dismissed the whole idea of it as Pinkie reading too far into things. But then again… what he'd said… that something around him could be close to him, but only if it would let itself… "Whatever." She rolled her eyes and crossed her forelegs, staring angrily in the opposite direction as her pink friend.

"I figured you wouldn't get it." Pinkie smiled sadly. "Oh well. Just so you know, Eggman decided to keep one of us in each little theme park of his. I'm going back to the resort to help that little alien buddy of yours with holding down the fort. See ya!"

"Okay…" Rainbow nodded. Suddenly she started in shock. "Wait, how do you know about Yacker?!"

"Doesn't matter~!" Pinkie chirped, her usual grin returning as she exited the gingerbread house. "Byesies!"

**And that is that. Would you all believe I wrote this in two hours?**

**Radicool223 out!**


	8. Starlight Carnival

Cobalt Spikes performed a quick landing on the back of the large space ship that was shooting at him, beginning to pound at the back of it with his forehooves and drive several holes through it. This was harder to do that the other robots he'd encountered, however, because this one was made of thicker metal and wasn't small enough to just knock its circuitry loose. He wasn't exactly sure what to make of it, or how to kill it.

The fight was going badly. He'd failed to compensate in his strategy for beating this thing, not knowing that it would be so durable or fast, and now there was no other word to describe how he felt except tired. He briefly wondered what might happen if the robot decided to fly out of the artificial atmosphere that Eggman projected around this clump of starships. He dismissed the thought, however, not even wanting to think about what might happen in that case.

He gasped as he was hit in the side with an orb of electric energy from one of the ships turrets that he hadn't seen, feeling the pure voltage shock his nervous system. The buzzing sensation of the projectile wore off, and Cobalt's vision went dark. He slumped on the surface of the ship and began to breathe heavily as he fought to stay conscious, knowing that very bad things would happen if he didn't.

_Power_… the voice in his head murmured, sensing his desire. _I can give you the power to defeat them… just surrender your mind to me…_

"No…" Cobalt murmured, twitching with the electricity that was still pulsing through him. "I'll never… I won't…" he heard the clanking of the metal feet of the Eggbots that were aboard the robot ship on the metal of the ship's surface approaching him fast. He couldn't see where they were, so when the first foot kicked him in the side, he wasn't prepared for it, and the air was knocked out of his lungs, leaving him gasping for breath. Soon the others that had surrounded him followed suit, battering him with blows.

_Do it…_ the voice insisted. _You must_…

"Stop…" Cobalt groaned, wincing as another foot made contact with his wings, causing pain like hot wild fire to shoot through his body. "I can't… I won't…" suddenly an image flashed through his mind of Rainbow Dash, and he felt newfound strength coursing through his muscles.

"I… NEVER!" As he shouted this, he shot to his hooves, blowing the robots away with the sheer force of the gale his wings whipped up with the recovery. He regained his vision quickly enough to see them topple off the sides of the ship and plunge into the black void of artificially gravitational space.

Cobalt summoned up all his strength for what would be, if it went wrong, a possibly suicidal finishing move. He launched himself as far as he could up into the sky, until he could barely breathe the miniscule amounts of air anymore, and then came plummeting back down in a mach cone.

He was attempting to do something either extremely genius or stupid: to use the force from a Sonic Darkboom to bust straight through the hull of the ship. He'd used a technique somewhat like this before back in Dimension X to bust straight through another one of Eggman's robots, but that had been with the combined force of himself _and_ Rainbow Dash. Now alone, even though he was going to perform a Sonic Darkboom, his most powerful asset without giving in to corruption, he wasn't sure he could do this without killing himself too.

But he nevertheless shot straight down at the roof of the ship, gaining as much speed as possible. He gritted his teeth as he broke the sound barrier, sending a ring of darkness outward in a perfect circle from himself. He squeezed his eyes shut and smashed straight through the front of the ship.

The explosion started before his momentum and force carried him out the other side of the robot vessel, and he felt the pure heat of it slightly singe his fur. He slowed himself to a halt, and flashed back up to rejoin the dying robot. It smashed into another projected road and exploded in a huge ball of fire.

Cobalt watched its demise, satisfied that it was destroyed for good. Finally allowing himself some room to mentally rest, he retraced his flight pattern back to the generator.

BACK AT THE GENERATOR

The tractor beam generator was big and metal and laced with all sorts of important looking wires, and that did nothing to diminish Cobalt's destructive desire to rip it to pieces. Picking a particularly key looking wire, he seized it in his teeth and ripped it out of its place, snapping it in half. The generator sparked once and the energy chain that linked it and the tropical resort disappeared.

Satisfied with his work, Cobalt trotted off with a smile, but before he could get too far, he heard screaming coming from inside a locked door near where the generator had stood. "Get me out of here at once! I will _end_ you, I tell you!"

Cobalt grinned, knowing exactly who that was. "Rarity." It was fitting that she'd be held captive in a place that might be considered almost beautiful by most ponies, just like she was. Cobalt did acknowledge that the white mare was beautiful… but that wasn't the kind of beauty he looked for. Of course, he'd never tell her that.

He kicked down the door and let the heavy metal crash to the ground and cause the string of 'ladylike' threats to stop before stepping in over it. "Hello, Rarity." He said, his smile growing bigger.

"Cobalt!" Rarity gasped, her eyes going wide. "How–what–"

"That doesn't matter much right now. Let's get you untied, eh?" He nodded to the ropes that bound Rarity's limbs.

She seemed to ignore his offer. "What–where–you look awful!"

Cobalt sighed, knowing that Rarity of course would focus on looks. "Yeah, I know. I kind of got beat up… a lot. And I'm also charred, so don't even mention that one."

Rarity swallowed hard. "Yes, I can smell that." She remarked. "So you–"

"And Rainbow Dash." Cobalt interjected.

"Right." Rarity nodded, staring straight at Cobalt, as if she was still surprised that her screaming and yelling had somehow actually worked to get her rescued. "You two are going to stop this scheme?"

"Yep. The best thing you can do right now, though, is to go back and get as close as possible to the elevator." Cobalt narrowed his eyes. "If things go wrong, you need to get the heck out of here. Fast." He closed his eyes shut and grimaced, knowing that 'things going wrong' meant him dying. He forced a smile on his face. "But first let's get you untied, right?"

"Yes." Rarity cleared her throat and shook her head to clear it. "That would be nice."

A FEW MOMENTS LATER

"Ah. That's much better." Rarity stretched her legs out, seeing as they'd been pinned to her sides for the better part of a couple of days. "Honestly, that ruffian Eggman has no idea of how to treat a lady."

Cobalt smiled faintly and shook his head. "Now _how_ did I know you'd say that?" he muttered inaudibly.

"Well, thank you, Cobalt." Rarity nodded to her rescuer over her shoulder, being halfway through the process of exiting the busted-open door. She looked concerned for a moment, though. "Are… are you sure you're okay? I mean, _entirely_ okay?"

Cobalt rolled his eyes. "Yes, Rarity," he said.

"Are you _absolutely _sure?" the white unicorn pressed. "There's no question that you're–"

"_Fine_, Rarity." Cobalt interrupted, a slight growl taking hold of his voice. His gray eyes narrowed. "I'm _fine_."

Rarity visibly gulped and nodded. "Yes, okay." She cleared her throat. "Yes, I'll be heading back to the elevator now."

"Right." Cobalt agreed, a deadly tone to his voice. With a start, he suddenly realized that in his moment of victory, he'd let his guard down, and the darkness had taken that moment to slowly seep into him again, making his actions and speech much more feral than he would've liked them to be. "Rarity, wait," he began, wanting to apologize, but that was in vain, because the unicorn had quickly disappeared.

**Hi guys. If you're wanting to know why I'm not responding to reviews anymore, it's because I'm having a bit of trouble gaining access to seeing them these days, so just know that I ****_do_**** read them if I get the chance, but I'm not responding because I don't get many chances.**

**MEANWHILE, keep watch for a special story that I'm going to be posting in just the MLP FIM section of fanfiction. It's going to be a lot of fun to do, and I hope you'll look for that.**

**Radicool223 out!**


	9. Planet Wisp (Closed Due to Maintenance)

**Righty then, I've gotten the next chapter of Brony University done in… four hours… time to work on this! Also, WISP ALERT! Wisps in proximity!**

Cobalt winced with nearly every step he took. Getting electrocuted… well, to put it in laymen's terms… sucked like crud. He couldn't fly too much, given that he'd been kicked in the wings, and was pretty sure there were a couple of fractures in those, but he could still walk to the teleportation pads, and that was good enough, given that after the generator had been destroyed, the robots seemed to have lost the will to live. There were 'motobugs' lying upside down on the holographic roads, their spindly metal scythes waving wildly in the air, almost like turtles that had been flipped onto their backs. Fluttershy would've found it some form of animal cruelty, even though they were robots, but Cobalt thought it was somewhat amusing.

He passed an Eggbot that held a sign in its fist. Whereas it would normally try to swipe at him with its 'sword', it was instead hammering itself in the head with it, its fixed metallic smile making it all the more laughable. Eggman's robots might be evil, but boy did he know how to program some hilarious malfunctions.

Of course, with the laughter came also regret for Cobalt. Regret that he found this funny. Four months ago, he would've passed over it without any emotion at all. But now, having undergone a month and a half of corruption, he couldn't help but smile at the robots' lifeless suffering.

He reached the warp pads, which had numbers of minutes for 'times used' in digital, blocky numbering. The ones to other planets were still stuck firmly at 0, but the one to the tropical resort's (ironically named Tropical Resort) number had ticked up to one.

Cobalt smiled, knowing that Rarity had gotten safely back to the safest place possible for now, and put a hoof on the pad that still read 'Closed for Maintenance'. In a swirl of light, he felt space bend around him, and the next thing he knew he was standing on the same warp pad, but in a different location.

He stepped off the pad and looked around at where he was, noting that this place was lush and green compared with the metal of the other planetoids. He saw that there were lots of trees and open spaces and red metal cranes and–wait…

That wasn't right. The red metal didn't fit at all with the rest of the atmosphere of this planetoid. In fact, it looked as if someone were trying to combine a forest with a construction site that looked very… Eggman-ish. This was wrong. Everything here was wrong. This shouldn't exist. He couldn't bear to see this… this… _abomination_ of a place.

He felt white-hot anger rushing up inside of him, and made a futile attempt to calm himself, but then he was knocked over by a little orange bullet that phased indie of him, and he knew what that meant from what Rainbow Dash had said briefly about her experience with what these things were: wisps. And from what she'd told him… oh no.

The experience was hard to describe. He felt like jumping as high as he could for a moment, and then when he tried, it was as if it were in slow motion. His vision turned orange, and he suddenly rocketed up into the skies of the planetoid.

His vision returned when he was several hundred yards into the sky. He felt something leaving his body, and then a huge rush of pure happy energy. He grinned widely and let out a whoop, beginning to fall downward toward the ground at a comfortable glide. He spotted the generator in the distance and angled his descent toward it.

ONE MINUTE LATER

Cobalt touched down on the ground of the generator, and skidded to a stop. He was about to use his momentum to put a hoof through the generator, but he instead ran into a wall of metal that popped up from the ground around the generator in place of the force field of last time.

He backed away on unsteady hooves, having just slammed his already bruised face into a wall. "Ow!" he shouted, holding the side of his head that had been hit the hardest. He felt a trickle of blood coming from his jaw on that side, indicating that he'd hit the wall hard enough to break the skin of one of his bruises. He was lucky he didn't have a black eye at this point. "Why you–!" he almost punched the wall as hard as he could, but then realized that that would be a stupid idea, and would most likely break his leg.

"Oh, hello Cobalt!" he heard a familiar voice chirp, and hoofsteps trotting towards him on the metal ground. He turned around to see Fluttershy approaching him with a huge smile on her face. "What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Fluttershy?!" Cobalt exclaimed, almost completely _done_ with today's weird events. He'd just assumed that his friend that was being held captive on this planetoid would be locked away the same as Rarity had been. "Wha–?"

"Oh, you're wondering why I'm not tied up, aren't you?" Fluttershy guessed. "Well, those robots are so nice. They untied me on their own." Cobalt realized from that that she must've somehow done 'the stare' on the robots and not realized it. "And then there was another big meanie circle robot, but I think I set him straight." Fluttershy glanced over at what Cobalt had assumed to be a giant heap of scrap metal, but was in fact what looked like an even more feral version of the robot from the tropical resort lying dead on the ground.

Cobalt was just trying to process how Fluttershy had killed a huge robot made to kill without any injury to herself in the process, but then noticed that she had a bandage wrapped around her ribs. "You're hurt." He said.

"Oh, that's nothing. It's just a broken rib, but–Sweet Celestia!" Fluttershy's eyes widened as she saw Cobalt's multiple wounds. "What happened to–"

"It doesn't matter." Cobalt dismissed Fluttershy's worries. "Really, it doesn't, Fluttershy. Don't push it." He added warningly.

Fluttershy frowned, he eyes still wide with concern, but she nodded slowly–reluctantly–in acceptance of his wishes. "O-okay… but why are you here?"

"I'm here to blow that," Cobalt gestured toward the generator. "Sky high."

Fluttershy seemed to be consumed in private thought for a minute, and then spoke up. "What can I do to help?" When Cobalt didn't respond quickly, she added with a dark undertone to her voice, "Did that thing do any of this to you?"

Cobalt was about to say no, but then a little idea developed in his mind about how he could play an angle to get the generator to retract its wall. He had no idea if his plan would work, but he had to try. "Yeah, a little." He answered, and then watched as Fluttershy got extremely worked up.

She whipped her gaze toward the generator, her usually passive eyes blazing with fury and the light of 'the stare'. "Hey!" she shouted at it. "I cannot believe this! You see that he's injured and yet you still decide to hurt him even more?!"

The wall began to spasm, rising up and down at random and making crackling noises.

"I want to make one thing clear to you, you (please insert your censor of choice here, for the word actually used here is much to graphic for this story's current rating), you will never, _ever_, HURT MY FRIEND AGAIN!" Fluttershy screamed at the top of her lungs, and as the walls sparked and retracted, she collapsed on the ground in tears.

Cobalt's mouth hung open, having no idea of why Fluttershy would be crying. He cautiously trotted over toward her and set a hoof on her shoulder. "F-flutters? What's–"

She looked up at him with a tear-streaked face. "I-I'm sorry." She stammered. "It's just… seeing you hurt… I lost control on it…" she sniffed and wiped her eyes, taking a deep breath as if to calm herself, standing up. "Okay… I'm fine. Sorry about that, Cobalt."

Cobalt frowned. "It's okay, Fluttershy. Thank you for being so caring about me."

Fluttershy nodded. "You're welcome. Well, I guess I'll just go back to the elevator…" She turned away almost regretfully, but then she stomped on the ground and growled. She whipped back toward Cobalt, her eyes blazing once more. He wondered fearfully if she was going to do the stare on him, but then she said forcefully, "Enough is enough!" and kissed him. Cobalt's eyes went wide and he froze in shock.

The yellow pegasus broke away quickly, not even seeming the slightest bit embarrassed with her actions, but instead still having that determined light in them. "Don't question it." She ordered. "Don't pursue this. I like you. I always have, and I know you're not interested in me, but I had to do this at least once before something happens to either of us, and now was that time. Do you understand?"

Cobalt unconsciously muttered something along the lines of, "Yes, ma'am," and Fluttershy nodded. She turned her back on him once more and walked away, kicking the elevator as she passed and making it spark and shut down. "I'm going back to the elevator. I expect you to live. See you later."

And then she was gone, leaving Cobalt to wonder what the heck had just happened.

**Whoa, I'll bet none of you saw that coming. Or did you… huh… I'm confused already. But anyway. I think the time tally for this one comes to about two hours again.**

**Radicool223 out!**


	10. Aquarium Park

**Hello! As you can tell, I'm having a little bit of fun with writing this stuff these last few chapters! I've decided to toy with emotions a little, maybe do some other stuff I'd held back from doing for a while. I don't know, but this is all completely spontaneous, and I love it!**

**Also, going back to an earlier chapter of this, I have to say I expected a bigger reaction when the Doctor mentioned a fugue state. Oh well.**

Rainbow Dash wasn't very happy with the… how should she put it? Oh yes, _overly excessive _amounts of water in this place. She knew Cobalt would despise it even more, and she was sort of glad that he wasn't here for that very reason, but that feeling didn't last long when she realized that it was a bit of protectiveness toward the one pony she hated the most.

But back on the topic of the water, it was very annoying, and by very, she meant extremely. It was as if every section she wanted to get to either required diving under the water to swim through a tiny gap in the wall separating it and the previous section, or fly over the impossibly tall wall into the oxygen-thin space above. Not only could that end up killing her if she wasn't careful, it was impossible due to her soaked feathers, and so that was out.

On top of that, she had absolutely no idea where she was going. The generator could be in any one of these sections, or none of them at all. For all she knew, it could be at the center of the planet itself, and she was _not_ going to dive all the way down there.

Finally she reached a larger than normal section and saw at the far end a metallic thing sticking out of the water. She began to swim over to it, but then the water erupted in a geyser above her. When the spitting water cleared, the same pirate robot as before, now thoroughly patched up looking and with a great big slash across his eye, glowered down at her from the deck of a new pirate ship. "Ready for round two, lass?" he growled.

"Oh, am I _ever_." Rainbow snarled back at him, remembering how this thing had tormented her with her own emotions. She swam as fast as possible over to the back of the ship and began to climb it.

"Initiate repulsion procedures!" she heard the robot bark to his crew, and then she was on deck as well, facing him pointing a cutlass at her heart, just as he had last time, although now she had the advantage of movement.

She quickly ducked under the blade and bucked it out of his hands, sending it spiraling out into the water. She hoped it ended up stabbing one of those demon metal fish. He took the advantage of her being in such close quarters, though to grab her by her hind legs and throw her into the mast of the ship, letting her slide painfully to the ground.

Rainbow had no intention of simply being hit hard forcing her to back out of the fight. No, she could take way more than that. "So you wanted a grudge match, huh?" she taunted the robot, picking herself up off the ground. "Did you have to _beg_ Eggman to repair you and give you a second chance?"

"Aye, I did." The robot agreed, his one good mechanical eye not giving anything away about what he was thinking… er, computing. "It was a sad day for me, but now my boss has collected even more data from our last scuffle. I can now destroy you."

Rainbow cringed as she realized that she had absolutely no idea of what she'd done last time, putting her at the disadvantage if she unknowingly tried one of the same things she'd done last time now. That didn't matter though. None of that mattered. She growled and let out a shout of fury as she leapt at the robot in what she hoped would be a surprise tackle to send him overboard. It didn't work, because he merely grabbed her and tossed her overboard with a splash.

She resurfaced from where she'd been thrown into the water, gasping for air. When she'd recovered, she glowered back up at the ship, beginning to swim back over to climb aboard again. She froze, though, as she heard the robot shout, "Electrocution rifles, now!"

Several bullets of what Rainbow assumed were pure electricity sailed over the edge of the ship and made contact with the water. She realized too late that water was one of the best conductors of electricity that anypony could find, and the shock of the bullets hit her, making her shudder with the current, and then her legs went limp from the shock her nervous system had gotten.

_I can't move_, she realized as spots appeared in her vision and the robot once again called for the electrocution rifles to be fired. _I'm going to be stuck here and left getting shocked like this until I die_. And sadly, until she died didn't seem like it was going to be that long of a time if this continued.

Suddenly a pink, spiky alien floated down from the sky above her. She wasn't sure whether this was her imagination or a desperate hallucination her mind had conjured up or whether it was real, but that didn't change the rush of energy she got as the alien phased into her body, or how she felt like she was being rolled into a ball with spikes, or how when the next burst of electricity came she felt nothing. She was insulated. The alien had transformed her into an insulated spiky pink ball.

She spun around in place until she was just a pink ball spinning too rapidly to actually tell she was spinning, and then she shot forward extremely fast, skipping across the water like a flat stone. The spikes she was covered in ripped through the ship like it was made of soft butter, and she continued onward from it, slamming into the generator and making it explode.

The explosion knocked her back into a door in the wall, busting it down. Once the dust cleared, Rainbow could see that on the other side was a surprised Applejack.

The orange earth pony began, "What in–"

"Wait, wait!" Rainbow interrupted, then stopped her speech and laughed a little to herself. "Oh, that's cool. I can talk like this. Look," she continued on the more serious part of what she was trying to say. "I'm Rainbow Dash. I know you don't have to believe me, so I have proof. Remember that one time at the slumber party at Pinkie's place at Sugarcube Corner where you said–"

"Let's not rehash what Ah said." Applejack cut in quickly. "Ah didn't realize that cider was spiked, and so whatever Ah said was under a state of–"

"We know, Applejack. But it doesn't make it less funny." Rainbow shook her head, or… like this it would be simply turning left and right repeatedly. "So, you remember where the warp panels are?"

Applejack nodded. "But they're still devil witchery in mah book."

"Riiight…" Rainbow cleared her throat. "Moving on, get over to those and take the one that says 'Tropical Resort'. Got it?"

"Ah believe so." Applejack agreed. "But what about y–"

She didn't get to finish whatever thought she was about to voice, because Rainbow had already spin-launched herself back to the wall and dived under it.

BACK AT THE WARP PANELS

Rainbow finally transformed back when she got to the warp panels, but something still felt odd about it. However those misgivings were immediately swamped by the feeling and thoughts that made her eyelids lower slightly and a huge blush cover her face. "Oh, Cobalt…" she murmured, stepping on the panel that would send her to the only planet neither of them had been to, and would thus be exactly where Cobalt would go.

**Whoa, what's going to happen next?! Stay tuned for next chapter when all (some) will be revealed!**

**Radicool223 out!**


	11. Asteroid Coaster

**So, announcements before I begin: Brony University is now its own separate project, so don't expect that to upload when other things do, and because of the length of this chapter I'm going to wait another week before posting the next 'Blue Flare' chapter.**

**Without any further ado:**

Cobalt tapped his hoof impatiently on the hard stone ground that made up his next challenge, the zone of the park known as the Asteroid Coaster. He'd noted several skull shaped cars for a roller coaster mounted on sturdy looking rails, which did seem to be the makings for a great ride, if the rails hadn't been cut off at the ends so that they would send the average rider spiraling into the dark abyss of space.

More importantly, though, he had no idea where in this world or the next Rainbow Dash was. He knew she'd go here, given it was the only place neither of them had gone to yet, and he knew she couldn't say no to a challenge. So he'd decided to wait by the warp panels, but she hadn't shown up yet. He knew valuable seconds were ticking away until the park opened to the public the next day, where countless ponies would come to have fun in this 'reformed' villain's theme park, because he knew that in Equestria they took reformation very seriously and most wouldn't even twitch at this sudden change of heart.

This had to be the base of operations for Eggman's alien harvesting plot. Cobalt had no idea what was going on with it, but if this was the sort of atmosphere it projected, what with the green fire and purple ooze and all sorts of other deadly looking things, then no matter what it was, it couldn't be good.

_How soft_. The voice in his head muttered. _You actually pity these foreign creatures' suffering_?

"Yes, I do." Cobalt said aloud in response.

_Then that is what makes you weak_. The voice accused.

"I may not be cold and heartless," Cobalt snarled back, feeling a rush of anger at the thought that this thing imagined in its wildest fantasies that he was weak. "But 'weak' isn't a word in my language. You're the weak one. You can't even hurt me anymore!"

The voice was silent for a few moments before replying in a mutter. _So you assume that I am weak and cannot cause you pain. Then you are a soft fool, little pony_. It ceased speaking as a wave of indescribable pain washed over Cobalt like a tsunami. He gritted his teeth and tried with all his might to restrain from making a sound in response. He swung his head left and right as if he could attack the darkness closing in around the corners of his eyes and make the pain go away.

Then, as quickly as it had begun, it ceased, leaving his with nothing but the memory of it, which was quickly fading, and the voice leaving its parting message: _I shall leave you at that, you fool. Never underestimate me again._

There was a strange sound and Cobalt turned his head, shaking off the residual pain in his nervous system, to look and see what was. He felt a mix of emotions as he saw Rainbow Dash standing on the warp panel from Aquarium Park with a strange look on her face. He was glad to see that she was there, but knew that any conversation with her would end badly, and therefore wasn't too eager to see her.

Moving on to the look on her face… it was one he hadn't ever seen before on her. Her eyes were half-closed with her mane falling into them, she was smiling very slightly, and there was a large blush covering her face. He didn't like that, nor the way her wings were sticking straight out at her sides.

She stalked slowly over to him and began to speak. "Hey, Cobalt," she murmured once she was close enough to murmur, her eyes not focusing on him at all, but rather looking at the ground the most. "So, how was it?" she asked in a tone unlike her normal one, almost as if she was making an effort to sound nice.

"Good…" Cobalt muttered uncertainly, unsure of whether she just didn't notice the many scratches or bruises he'd gotten, or if she was deliberately avoiding the topic. He heard a quiet, rapid, thumping noise that seemed to be coming from inside the light blue pegasus herself, and raised an eyebrow, almost already sure of what it was. "Hey, Rainbow? Do you mind if I listen to your heartbeat for a moment?"

She smiled even more and her face got even redder, her eyes finally focusing on him. "Go ahead," she whispered.

Cobalt leaned over and put an ear to her chest, frowning as he noticed her heart was racing way too fast for just an average scenario. Something was up, was making her act weird, and he didn't like it, whatever it was.

Suddenly he felt her push him away, yet still held him at forelegs' length. There was a strange look in her eyes as she stared at him her face serious and her breathing erratic. "Look, Cobalt. Let's quit the pleasantries. We both know what's going on."

"I don't know!" Cobalt said quickly, his voice more high pitched than usual due to this completely unexpected situation. He felt his wings begin to straighten involuntarily. Even in a moment where she was acting like this, he still couldn't prevent his attraction to her.

She narrowed her eyes, a bit of the normal Rainbow coming back as her tone shook in the next thing she said. "Cobalt, I need you. I _love_ you." She gave her head a slight shake and suddenly the smooth honey in her voice returned. "Please?"

Cobalt realized what that strange look she was giving him was. It was lust. But it wasn't her fault. It was that kind of lust fueled by something like alcohol, or in this case… He flashed back to the rush of exhilaration and lightheaded happiness the orange wisp had given him, and realized that one of those things must be inadvertently causing her to feel such a strong attraction to him. But that couldn't just be it. There had to be _something_ else that made her pick _him_ to be the one she felt so strongly toward, right?

Dismissing his thoughts as illusions, he made a desperate ploy to get the wisp out of her, putting his forehooves on her shoulders and staring straight into her eyes. "Yes, of course, Dash." He said hastily, and pulled her into a hug before she could begin to wonder what he was doing. He growled to her back under his breath, in a voice that she couldn't hear, but whatever was hiding inside of her could, "If you don't get out of her right now, I will simply leave all these planets to die under Eggman's control. Do you hear me?"

_There. Let your inner cruelty flow, little pony_. The voice encouraged.

_No. I won't do that to them._ Cobalt thought back, knowing that what he was doing was merely threatening talk just to make the alien so scared that he would leave Rainbow's body and cure her of her emotion.

It worked, and the alien phased out of her, giving him an irritated look as it hovered away. Cobalt returned the look before pulling away from Rainbow and looking at her. Her eyes seemed duller and her expression more depressed than she had for a while, but that didn't mask her anger as she glared at him.

She punched him across the face and snarled, "Never hug me. Got it?"

Cobalt's put a hoof to his face in shock and hurt and rubbed the spot where she'd hit him to soothe the pain. She'd gotten him right on a previous bruise and seemed to have broken the skin from the tiny trickle of blood that rubbed off on his hoof. "What in Tartarus?!" he exclaimed, narrowing his eyes. "I _helped_ you!"

"What help?" Rainbow asked, the anger for some reason seeming to subside and her expression changing to one of confused pain. "What did you–"

"That thing–" Cobalt jerked a hoof to point at the still-retreating pink wisp. "Was in you and making you act all… weird and blush-y and…" he rolled his hoof around in a motion to show that he couldn't think of another word to describe how she had been acting.

Rainbow gasped covered her mouth with both hooves. "Oh, Sweet Celestia…" she muttered. "That wasn't a daydream, was it…?"

"Oh, so you just _assumed_ it was a daydream?" Cobalt growled before realizing the connotations of that. "Y-you'd daydream about that?"

Rainbow's blush returned full-force. "Th-that d-doesn't matter!" she swallowed hard. "Just because I have daydreams doesn't mean I think about you like–"

"Oh, I'm _sure_." Cobalt said sarcastically, standing up and walking a few paces away, making a point to not look at her. "Because daydreams mean nothing!"

"That's right!" Rainbow snapped, following him. "Nothing at all!"

Cobalt sighed and shook his head, turning back around to face her. "Look, it doesn't matter how either of us feel toward each other; we have to stop Eggman and help out our friends."

"Oh yeah, and which of our friends do you think is here?" Rainbow demanded.

"Who have you found?"

"Pinkie and Applejack."

"Then it has to be Twilight." Cobalt deduced.

Rainbow's mouth twitched and she inhaled sharply. "Oh, and I'll bet you're _really _happy it's her, aren't you? You get to save your _lover_." her voice broke on the last word. Cobalt looked at her face and saw that she was on the verge of crying.

Cobalt raised an eyebrow, confused. "Lover? But we're not–"

"Shut up!" she shouted, covering her face with a wing. "Shut up shut up shut _up_!"

Cobalt sighed and shook his head. "Come on, Dash," he flinched after saying that, remembering how she'd yelled at him repeatedly to not call her that, but she didn't react at all this time. He coughed and resumed what he was saying. "Dash, we've gotta get going."

"Y-yeah, I know." She lowered her wing and looked up at him through red-rimmed eyes. "Let's go."

ONE ZONE THAT WAS FUN IN THE GAME LATER

The two approached a large building perched on a larger meteorite after a long search through a sparse asteroid field filled with countless robots, dangerous gravity shifts, and roller coasters that spiraled off into space if they weren't careful (Cobalt personally thought that was a waste of resources and the bits used to purchase them).

There had been little instance of argument between the two through the duration of the jouney, just shouted advice if it was needed for survival purposes. Cobalt didn't even know if she'd looked directly at him even once, but he had her. The pain in her was obvious to him. He could see other ponies' hurt now as clear as reading a text, even if it was cryptic at times, possibly because of his own terrible suffering. It had made him sharply aware of physical cues that gave away certain things about a mind state, and Rainbow was giving off those that showed that she was both depressed and tortured on the inside, as was he. Their mutual anger wouldn't let him say anything, not even a small word of comfort, but his love toward her couldn't be restrained from saying something, ripping him in two on the inside of whether he would give in to love or hatred, and which was right in this case.

Of course, a morally upright person could tell you in their sleep that the right thing to choose would be love, but all those morally upright people must needs remember what state our darkly heroic pegasus is in, and how far corruption has taken his mind. If he were to be correct in the eyes of morals, he would go with his gut instinct of choosing love, but both the small voice whispering in his mind and harsh, bitter, biting realism tell him to choose the draught of hatred. So which he should decide upon is still unclear in his mind.

What was 'right'? Cobalt gritted his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut in order to ponder more harshly his mind on that question (**forgive me if I use a few poetic devices on this; I'm feeling poetic today**). Was 'right' the thing he _should_ do, or the thing he knew the worldly situation demanded? He exhaled heavily as the deadening answer fell onto his mind: _I don't know_ (**just a little hint for some more in depth reading, but where have we seen that before?**).

"I don't like this place." Rainbow muttered, still looking straight ahead.

"Gee, I wonder why?" Cobalt said in response, rolling his eyes. "Hey, did you have any more of those _daydreams_ yet?"

Rainbow turned to glare at him and snarled, "Bite me."

Cobalt sniffed and shrugged, turning away and beginning to trot toward the gaping maw of the warehouse-like building. "I'll bet I did that in one of them." He heard Rainbow gasp in shock, and though she trotted in front of him as if she didn't even want to talk to him, easier done when she was in front of him, but that didn't hide her huge blush, nor her wings sticking straight out at her sides, both of which made Cobalt grin smugly that he could get her to think like that.

If the inside of the building was possible to be even scarier than the outside, then it was. It was nearly entirely black, with splotches of gray here and there and more of that purple liquid stuff, flowing through clear pipes and stored in large and small vats. Cobalt trotted a little more slowly, his acquired paranoia playing up at every little thing that could possibly cause him fear. Rainbow plowed ahead without any displayed fear at all, lifting her chin high and standing up straight, unlike her dark blue companion, who instead crept along behind her, keeping watch for everything possible that could dare hurt either one of them, ready to kill it on sight.

Sure, killing something might be a drastic measure, but his newer violent, desperate nature desired to be able to do something like that in good moral without any sort of negative repercussions on his conscience. Besides, he would gladly destroy anything that would ever venture to hurt Rainbow. He would do anything, even lay down his life, for her.

It wasn't long before something bad did happen, in this case 'something bad' came in the form of a purple alien. It was blackish purple with only a gaping dark hold for a mouth, and was nearly invisible against the sort of walls that made up the place. The first thing it tried to do was take Cobalt's head off with its fangs.

He'd seen before what one of these things could do to him, especially concerning his emotions. If its color or power somehow reflected the effect it might have on him, he didn't want to get anywhere near it. He instead ducked and rolled out of its way, wincing as he inadvertently pressed down on a couple of bruises. "Whoa! Hey!" he shouted, standing up and scowling at the wisp. "What the heck are you?"

He got the translation from what it said thanks to the translator fluid in his system, but it seemed to be nothing intelligible, only managing some normal Equestrian words, like 'kill', 'rip', and 'destroy'. That didn't sound at all like something Cobalt wanted to let happen to either of them. He wondered what had happened to this wisp, though, because with an attitude like that it couldn't possibly have been able to fit in with the other wisps, and unless it had been from an entirely different planet than the known home of the wisps, it had to have undergone some sort of conversion.

A tiny bit of mathematics came into his head to help solve the problem, and he realized that this thing gave off negative emotions, while the other wisps gave off (mostly) positive ones. If that were the case, then since negative was the additive inverse of positive, then a normal wisp must've gone through a multiplication factor of negative one in order to become like this, and the only thing _that_ could be was…

That had to be it. This thing was the byproduct of Eggman's conversion device, a wisp that had become its additive inverse by being drained of all its energy, and probably more energy than it could afford to give.

He put a hoof on Rainbow Dash's shoulder, as she was glaring at it with a snarl on her face, ready to attack at any moment in return for attacking Cobalt, muttering, "Don't hurt it. It's just a normal wisp that's been drained of its energy and made like this. Would–" he broke off at that, refraining from adding 'would you attack me?' He realized that he was saying something that she wouldn't understand, because she didn't know about the dark forces moving deep in his mind and his heart.

She turned to glare at him. "Don't touch me." She snapped, but seemed to ignore the wisp for the most part, making Cobalt's goal accomplished. The wisp hissed at the two and then retreated down the hallway without any further incident.

Cobalt narrowed his eyes. "I don't like that. I don't like that at all. And I won't stand for it." He stalked ahead, taking the lead of the two as they continued down the hallway, working to penetrate to the center of the base, where the generator, and probably its robot protector, lived. Even Rainbow seemed taken aback by his sudden ferocity, almost stumbling to catch up with him while not saying a word, which was unusual for her.

AFTER THE GENERATOR HAS BEEN DESTROYED AND THE BOSS FOUGHT

Cobalt brushed the blood dripping into his eyes from the cut on his forehead away, turning to look at Rainbow Dash, who had suffered similar injuries (who knew you could arm a space skull fish with scythes?). They were both breathing hard from the intense fight they'd just had with the remarkably skull-resembling fish spacetanker (because a spaceship was just too small of a word for it). Cobalt was surprised that with the blood congregating in places under his skin and the gashes allowing all that collected blood to spill out that he hadn't died from blood loss already. Oh well, it wasn't _bad_ that he was still alive, at least.

Rainbow looked just as bad, her lack of bruises and such made up for by the excessive slicing injuries she'd sustained from her overaggressive attack style, and from that one moment when she'd… had she? What Cobalt remembered was that she'd purposefully taken a blow for him, but that was an absurd thought with her current mindset concerning him. These days she seemed to prefer to eat dirt rather than do anything for him. But all the same, she had accepted the cut and shielded Cobalt from it, so there was a very large discrepancy between her actions and her motives to him.

"That's it, right?" she said in between deep breaths. "That's the last one?"

"Yeah." Cobalt's speaking pattern was the same. "We did it. We can go home."

That statement should've been true, but he knew it couldn't be. It was too anticlimactic. The robot guardian had gone down as easily as the others had, without some sort of the usual 'most powerful of all' flair Eggman liked to have. To top that off, there hadn't been any sort of resolution in his mind. It all felt like they had been building to this one goal, and then now that they had accomplished it, everything just fell flat in the middle of some sort of climax. There was no way to describe it, but it just felt _wrong_, and that was the only word that could possibly be annotated equivocally with the feeling, and that was wrong.

"Let's go, then." Rainbow muttered dully, beginning to trot back to the warp panel that would get them to the main warp panels between parks, albeit doing so with a wince because of all her injuries, and Cobalt followed hesitantly, not wanting to leave any of the loose ends he felt still existed untied at all.

BACK AT THE SPACE ELEVATOR IN THE TROPICAL RESORT

The elements of harmony (besides Rainbow Dash) looked up at Cobalt and the aforementioned exempt element as they reentered the area where they had told the five to congregate. There were the gasps of shock and quiet murmurings of 'oh no' at their condition, but they existed only for a second before Cobalt cleared his throat (which was already dry, and therefore was a terrible idea) and announced, "We've eliminated the threat." To which the tension the wounds had caused was replaced by sighs of relief and sayings of congratulation.

"We need you all to get back home ASAP. When you get there, Twilight," Rainbow announced, glancing and glaring at the lavender unicorn at the same time to indicate that she was indeed referencing the pony the name she'd just spoken belonged to. "Send a letter to Celestia through Spike that tells everything that happened here, but make it general enough not to make her _too_ worried."

Twilight nodded and looked as if she immediately had begun to think of the wording of her letter right after agreeing to write it. If that wasn't overachieving, then nothing was.

"Don't worry about us," Rainbow continued, glancing at Cobalt. "We'll stay behind for a while. I think I'm not the only one who thinks something's up."

Cobalt masked his surprise at her having thought the same thing as him with a sarcastic remark. "I'll bet it's those daydreams again, isn't it?"

"Why you–!" Rainbow's face turned cherry red with a mixture of embarrassment and anger, and her expression morphed into a scowl. Before she 'got into it' with the argument with Cobalt, she turned to the rest and pointed at the elevator, saying slowly and deliberately, "Just go–please."

The other five, exchanging glances and shrugging while muttering quick goodbyes, obeyed the plea and vanished through the door to the room with the space elevator without a word to help stand between the two.

As soon as they were out of earshot, Rainbow took two angry strides that brought her face to face with Cobalt and shoved him, nearly causing him to fall over. He snarled like an animal in response, standing up as tall as he could and baring his teeth to look more threatening. "What in _Tartarus_ is wrong with you?!" Rainbow demanded, glaring at him through slightly red tinted eyes. "You just _had_ to bring up the _stupid_ bucking (**oh no, a censored bad word!**) daydreams in front of them, didn't you, you selfish–" she trailed off of her little tangent of outrage for loss of a term insulting and/or vulgar enough to describe how she thought of Cobalt at the moment.

"_I'm _selfish?!" Cobalt retaliated with equal ferocity in his tone. "_I'm_ the one who's just been trying to _help_ everything this whole time!" He shook his head, the anger in his veins making his motions, words, and thoughts quicker than they should be. "And do I get _any_ recognition for that? No! Nopony _ever_ cares about me!"

"Ya got _that_ right!" Rainbow growled, and then looked horrified at what she'd said. "Oh…" Suddenly her frown quivered and she looked as if she was threatening to burst out in tears, her gaze fixing on the ground. "Oh dear, sweet Celestia, what am I _doing_?"

Cobalt, for one, was confused. How did in the middle of such a heated argument Rainbow Dash, the one pony who he'd thought would like to participate in that the most, started to break down in emotion? That didn't add up at all. He kept quiet, though as she continued, still staring at the dirt below her.

"I just can't keep _hating_ you like this." Rainbow choked. "I can't… I…" she shook her head, sitting down and wrapping her tail around her hooves as if she were trying to insulate herself from some intangible cold.

Cobalt's anger had subsided, and so he instead put his mind to use in trying to figure out what he could say that would be appropriate in this situation. "Dash? You remember when I told that joke and you told me not to because it hurt you?" he gently reached forward and brushed a few orange and yellow strands of her mane out of her eyes. "Why did it?"

Rainbow seemed to finally let all her outer walls collapse, and the dam that had been holding back her emotions finally broke. She began to cry, and stammered, "B-because it–because i-it reminds me t-too much of wh-when we were t-together, a-and it's like y-you're trying to make it all–all the same as it was then, and it can never be the same!" she sobbed, squeezing her eyes shut and letting her tears pour out the corners.

Cobalt gently tilted her chin up and looked deep down into her rose-colored eyes. "Why can't it be?" he murmured, and then he kissed her, and she kissed him back, and they held the situation at that for a long while that they both wished didn't have to end.

**I'm just gonna be quiet and let this happen. See you next chapter.**

**Radicool223 out.**


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